This invention relates to separators of particles suspended in a fluid, and in particular to a device for adjusting an electrical delay to be equal to the time between two occurrences, i.e. the passing of a particle through a sensing zone and an electric charging of the particle.
A system of particle separation was described in the above noted U.S. Pat. No. 3,380,584. To the extent that it might be necessary to understand fully the teachings of the invention herein, the above Pat. No. 3,380,584 is incorporated herein by reference.
The noted patent discloses apparatus for sorting particles in a suspension fluid in accordance with a selected characteristic which may be size, color or others. The fluid is caused to flow through an orifice to which vibration is applied. A fluid jet issuing from the orifice separates into discrete equal volume droplets. Electrostatic droplet charging means is applied to the jet downstream from the orifice where the jet separates into droplets. Furthermore, electrostatic deflecting means downstream of the charging means causes each droplet to deflect an amount related to the charge on the droplet.